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Tropical Sands Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Can We Handle The Truth? We think of the religious world as consisting of Christians, Moslems and Jews. Christians are about a third of the world, Moslems about 21 percent, and less than one-quarter percent of the world population is Jewish. Fourteen percent are Hindu, six percent are Buddhist. The third largest group, behind Christians and Moslems, are people claiming no religion whatsoever. In America, 76 percent of all people call themselves Christian, and more than half call themselves Protestant. So if you grew up Christian and never faced persecution, don't be surprised. In many American communities, including the one I grew up in, you can expect persecution if you are anything but Christian. But today's scripture says that Christ gives us His message, and the world hates us for it. Back then, that was probably true in a way that it isn't true for us. But you have to wonder if calling yourself Christian and receiving God's message from Christ are the same thing. Let's hear the word of the LORD: "I gave them your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but I do ask that you keep them save from the Evil One. Just as I do not belong to the world, they do not belong to the world. Dedicate them to yourself by means of the truth; your word is truth. I sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. And for their sake I dedicate myself to you, in order that they, too, may be truly dedicated to you." --John 17:14-19 It's a popular phrase that if you don't have a run-in with the Devil, maybe you and he are going in the same direction. If you belonged to the world that I grew up in, you called yourself Christian, plain and simple. You were in for a world of trouble if you didn't. And history is filled with examples of the so-called Christian majority trampling the rights of non-Christians. I'll never forget the story of a Lebanese Christian militia killing every man, woman and child in a Palestinian refugee camp, and that was in my lifetime. Somehow, I doubt that Jesus would approve of the actions of that Christian militia, or the Crusaders who killed the world's oldest Christian community along with everyone else in Jerusalem, or the later Crusaders who pillaged the Greek Orthodox Church. There's more to receiving the message of Christ than calling ourselves Christians. Jesus himself said, "Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, didn't we prophesy in you name, and in your name cast out demons?' And I will say, 'I don't know you; away from me, you evildoers!'" So it must be important what this message is that Jesus gave to his disciples. Do you remember what Jesus was preaching when he began his ministry? "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." It is written that he preached that far and wide, so that must be a part of this message. I always say that your kingdom does not depend on where you live, but on who is your king. Gypsies and certain Native American tribes are examples of people who live in America, but they serve a different king, a different chief. If God is our King, then we belong to the Kingdom of God. If not, we are of this world. Now there are many non-Christians who worship God, with more visible dedication and ceremony than we do, but have they received God's message? They know that God is powerful, but do they know that he is also loving? They know that he hates evil, but do they know that he is also merciful? And even if they know these things, do they accept that they also are to be loving and merciful? Clearly, many self-proclaimed Christians worship Jesus, but fail to practice love and mercy. Jesus says that having received His message, the disciples do not belong to the world. They belong to the Kingdom of God. Their thoughts and actions are no longer driven by what it takes to succeed in this world, but rather by what it takes to please God. And they take their cue from Jesus himself, who practiced mercy instead of judgment, and forgiveness instead of vengeance. You see, God truly is all-powerful, and sometimes wrathful, but that is not the message that Christ gave his disciples. They had learned that all their lives from their Hebrew Bible. That same Bible also holds the message of God's love and forgiveness, but somehow that message had been lost by the time Jesus came around. We say that Jesus was God in the flesh, and there are indeed other worshippers of God who think we commit blasphemy for saying any human being is equal to God. So we worship Jesus, but that is not enough. We cry grace and grace alone, but it is not enough to receive the grace of God through Jesus Christ. We have to also practice the grace and forgiveness of God by forgiving others, just as Christ forgave others. That, I believe, is the message that Jesus gave his disciples. You may remember the movie, "An Officer and a Gentleman" with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. Cruise's character says, "All I want is the truth," and Nicholson's replies, "You can't handle the truth!" The truth is that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are not of this world. Our allegiance is to God, but no one will ever be harmed in any way by that allegiance. Because we have received God's message specifically as it was delivered by Jesus Christ. Can we handle the truth? The truth is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and we accept Lord and Savior. There are plenty of people in the world who will hate you for saying that. But the truth is also that we are to spread the grace and forgiveness of God, and leave the wrath and judgment strictly up to Him. There are plenty of self-proclaimed Christians who will hate you for saying that. So it might be that some of the world hates us for saying Jesus is the Christ, but even much of the Christian world will hate us for saying that we are to practice love and mercy in the same way that Jesus did. Can we handle the truth? Jesus said God's word is truth. A lot of us automatically think "Bible", because we say that the Bible is the word of God. And Jesus absolutely quoted scripture time and time again to make his point. But when Jesus quoted scripture, it was to say that God in the flesh as Messiah came not to condemn the world, but to save it. He came not to exercise God's wrath, but His forgiveness and mercy. Jesus quoted scripture to say that it is a sin to use religion to justify our own prejudice, or wrathfulness, or as an excuse for not helping people. People wonder why I hammer people to read the Gospels. We all have our favorite scripture, and it's the scripture that says we are right to think what we think or to do what we do. I'm not even opposed to that. But our job as Disciples of Christ is not to justify ourselves, but to learn from the Master, who is Jesus Christ himself. Never mind our favorite Bible verses; what were HIS favorite verses? Hosea 6:6 -- I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and steadfast love more than burnt offerings. Isaiah 29:13 -- These people honor me with their words, but their heart is far from me. Their worship is useless, teaching as the oracles of God the precepts of man. Isaiah 61:1 -- The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. Deuteronomy 6:5 -- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul. Leviticus 19:18 -- Love your neighbor as yourself. People always tell me that the God of the Old Testament was not very nice. So how is it that Jesus delivered a message of mercy and forgiveness and salvation by quoting the Old Testament? So if Satan isn't opposing you, maybe you're going in the same direction. If the world doesn't hate us, then maybe we haven't really received God's message from Jesus. And if the world does hate us, it might be because we carry that message, or it might also be that we are actually a royal pain. Can we handle the truth? We have to try. But first, we have to hear it. Jesus is LORD, but that LORD brought us a message from God. I pray that as we believe in and accept our Lord, we will also receive His message. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Joel Tucker Tropical Sands Christian Church May 28, 2006